Police: Driver rams woman in West Seattle during parking spot fight

This week in parking rage, police arrested a woman in West Seattle Sunday after another woman was hit in the leg by a car during an argument about dibs on a parking spot.

A woman got out of her car about 11 a.m. to help her husband search for parking near the West Seattle Summer Fest, Seattle police reports say. She found an open space in a parking lot in the 4500 block of 44th Avenue Southwest, stood in the spot and summoned her husband to pull in.

A 2009 Honda Accord arrived at the spot first and the driver told the woman to move. The woman refused, saying she was saving the spot for her husband. The female driver said “there was no saving spaces,” according to police reports, and continued to pull into the parking space until the car bumped into the woman standing there. The woman who was hit moved to avoid getting her foot run over and hit her leg again against the right front tire, reports say.

The driver left the Honda and walked away. Though the injured woman yelled at her, the driver reportedly said “she was busy and did not have time for this,” according to the police report. She reportedly made no effort to check on the woman’s well-being.

Officers responded and found the woman was limping and in obvious pain with a “large black mark” on her right leg.

Police found a dent to the passenger fender in the Honda above the wheel opening, which appeared to be new, as well as a smear in the dent that appeared to come from a hand.

A witness who spoke to police corroborated the injured woman’s story and said she was “shocked” that the driver would hit the woman over a parking space, reports say.

Police eventually spoke to the driver, who said she told the woman standing in the parking spot to move, but she refused, yelling and swearing. She admitted that she “bumped” into the woman and added that the woman’s husband threatened to “kick (her) ass,” according to the police report.

Officers arrested the woman for investigation of assault and impounded the Honda. The injured woman was taken to Harborview Medical Center.